The bus ride back was definitely an adventure in itself. Normally to get back to Accra one would go threw Lome. Some other peace core volunteers said they went threw Ho and it doesn't take that much longer and you get to see more of the country side. So my mom and dad and 2 other volunteers decided to come with us and try going a different route. Well a taxi picked us up at the house to take us to a taxi station. At the taxi station we payed for a big bus costing only 2 dollars. They said they were leaving in an hour so we put our bags up and started to wait. One guy would tell us we are only waiting for 2 more people to come before we left. Well after we waited for 2 hours we decided we will pay for the 2 extra seats so we can go. When Dad went to pay they said it was 4 people we were waiting for. We then waited another hour and decided fine we will pay for 4. But by then, the guy said its 5. In the end they needed 8 more people to go! I don't know if they thought we were rich and would pay for them all but we waited it out and only payed for our seats. We waited I think for 4-5 hours just to get the bus going! The actual bus ride was cramped. They fit 5 people in a row of 5 seats that were half the normal seat size. I was pushed up against the window which we needed to leave open so we didn't feel cramped and the air was hot. Someone even sat in the isle so there was no extra room. It seemed about every 10 miles there were guards that checked out the bus. Some of them made us all get off show them some kind of ID and then get back on. We did this a numerous about of times. At first it was annoying but the last couple of times it was nice to stretch out :) The guards think they can do whatever they wanted. Some tried to make us pay and mostly I think wondered why white people are riding a local transit bus. The border actually went smoothly which was nice and we finally rolled into town around 8. We got up at 7am and should have arrive before dark. In the end it was a long day, and I think we all were excited to be in town and off of that bus!
It doesn't really end there though. We had made reservations at the womens my parents know (Chez?) hotel. My dad had confirmed them early that day and told them we would be in around 8-9. When we got there at 8:30 they had given our room away and had a room for us at their other hotel out of town. My dad and i blew up a little bit at the guys and finally gave into the other hotel. When we got into our room they had sprayed for bugs about 5 minutes before and we couldn't breath. All we wanted to do was shower and go to dinner. We tried to wash ourselves with a wet hand towel and we were covered in dirt. Then the place my mom and dad had talked about all day (Italian with a 5 cheese pizza) was closed. We finally ended up at Frankie's and got a pizza and a couple of beers. We went back to the hotel showered and went to bed. It was a long day and we all slept good.
Then we went to the airport. We went 2 hours ahead and as I was getting out of the car they told me to run because i was the last passenger on the plane! It wasn't quite as bad as I thought but i did have to hurry. Uffda! is all I can say about the last day and a half
when I was there.
It was sad saying good bye to my parents and I miss them already.
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